The New House
Just over a year ago (the 12th to be exact - it's taken AGES to finish this post) we viewed our house and a couple days later, put in our offer which was accepted! What a crazy whirlwind of a year it has been. Yet we feel so happy and settled.
It took 3 months from finding our house to moving. It was pretty damn stressful at the time but I'm hindsight it wasn't nearly as long and drawn out as it felt! Not only were we moving with our 2 young kids but we were doing it in a pandemic and going 2hrs away from where we were! Packing up the house in itself was an interesting experience in itself, around a 7½ month old who decided to crawl a couple of days before we went. Though having said that, I took the kids to my parents house the night before so that Scott could finish the last bits and be in charge of events on the day. This helped A LOT! It also meant that I was closer to the new house so went to pick up the keys and open up before Scott and the removals people arrived.
We moved on the 7th December. And in hindsight there were plenty of things we failed to consider! Firstly, how late we may get the keys and how long it would take our stuff to travel from Bristol to Devon. I can't remember exact timings but it was after lunch Scott and the lorries left Bristol and it was the afternoon I went to pick up the keys.
We had planned to get our furniture basically in the house and mattresses on the floor which would do us for the first night. Reality was that by the time the removal blokes had stopped for lunch, our furniture didn't turn up until after dark. The house had been open all day with the previous owners moving out and then us moving in which meant the place was FREEZING. The kitchen was filthy and with two young kids to feed and get to bed, it was insane to think we could stay the night. So whilst Scott helped the removals get the rest of our stuff in, I packed the kids back into the car and drove back to my parents, who were great and get some food cooked ready for our arrival back!
This house is so incredibly different from our old one. It's 400+ year old cobb walls and wonky floors felt so alien compared to the very standard 1970's end of terrace we had just left behind. The feeling of "oh shit, what have we done" was exactly the same as when we moved from our rented flat to our little rented cottage. We very quickly grew to love that place, which is all I could tell myself when trying to keep my nerves in check on the drive back to my parents. It worked out last time so it will this time right??? Only the stakes are much higher this time... We have a lovely great mortgage on this place and 2 kids to keep safe, happy and warm...
The reality was that that day was a long and stressful one and emotions were running wild. Leaving our first home which was our families safe place and arriving in this cold, dark, unfamiliar place was always going to be a bit of a culture shock. After a good night sleep we returned the next day when the sun was shining and the place felt completely different. We had renewed energy and was ready to make the place ours. Having the heating pumping all day long helped too!
Getting straight with the kids in tow was slow going. It took me a week to just clean the kitchen.. it was horribly filthy to be fair but even so, a week!! They had some extra built in cupboards in the way of the dining area which we were pretty quick to remove. We replaced our old dining table with a nice new bespoke table and two benches. The still need to replace the chairs but it's a start!
We also removed the built in fridge and freezer which was not only so dirty I didn't want to put our food in but also took up way too much space in the main kitchen. We are using our existing Fridge/freezer which is in the utility, just behind a door! As you open the door into the utility, there is a window that looks into the lane, just above where the washing machine sits. After a few months here, we decided that that space would be much better filled with a tumble drier - which has totally changed my life! The best thing ever! It's a lovely functional space out there now, I also have a clothesmaid above the utility toilet so anything that can't go in the drier can dry there, it's great!
We prioritised getting a Christmas tree as we felt guilty that it was Oscar's first Christmas and the first one Pippa would properly remember/understand and so far we couldn't have been less christmassy! We had our first real tree and it was just lovely! From going to pick it, to decorating and then admiring it every day. It certainly made the place feel more homely!
The wardrobes we had in our old house were too tall to fit in our new bedroom and our chest of draws were built into them. They are now pretty comprehensive garage storage. This meant that we lived out of drawers stacked on the floor of our bedroom for 4 months until our new ones arrived. Damn you Covid delaying everything!!
There were no curtains downstairs at all, only blinds which weren't really fit for purpose so we quickly rectified that. This included putting a full length curtain over the original (very rarely used) front door that goes into the living room. As the place is so old the windows and doors allow in some decent draughts so the curtains really helped. We bought them off the shelf and I've altered the lengths... well all but 2 pairs, getting time to sew is hard hence why I bought them in the first place! Apart from Pippa's room which has new curtains, all of the upstairs ones are mismatched from our old house, including our old floor length curtains with half the length lopped off to fit the much smaller bedroom window we have in this house. There's actually two windows in our new bedroom, the other one has the old lounge curtains on. The combined styling is just phenomenal!!
At the time it felt like it took forever to get straight and it was certainly a learning curve arriving in the winter and dealing with how the cold affects an old cobb cottage. Even silly things like the TV cables weren't fit for purpose and there was no satellite dish to pick up Freeview. We now have a dish but 9 months down the line, it's in the garage, not up and in use, instead we rely on catch up services. Can't say I miss much about live telly to be honest. None of our phones worked on our network providers (apart from Scott's work phone) and had no WiFi until it was connected. This was a real pain in the arse when trying to get stuff sorted and new furniture ordered etc.
Looking back on it all though it didn't actually take that long to feel like home. The key to falling in love with this place was to accept that things are going to take a very long time to be perfect - whatever that is! The reality was that our old house still wasn't perfect but we had done A LOT of work to get it mostly how we liked it. The surprise was that this place looked better finished and more perfect on the surface than it actually is in real life so when we got here and saw it all empty and cold, the realisation of how much we wanted to do hit us. That coupled with how difficult it is to get stuff done with small kids about made it feel pretty unmanageable to start with.
The reality also is with this type of property that we will never truly 'be done' as things will need maintaining and updating as years go by. There's also benefits to this too. The walls and floors are a bit wonky and if you look closely, it's a bit rough round the edges, but that means that things don't have to be perfect. They would look silly if they were. We had several of the walls re-plastered in our old house, then spent time making sure the paint job was absolutely perfect and then would get annoyed if the plaster got a dig in it.. don't get me wrong I don't want to go round knocking holes in the plaster but we don't really need to sweat the small stuff.
For the price we paid and what we have gained here we are really very lucky. Blimey, comparing it to what we were willing to pay for Hillhead Cottage, this place may be different and therefore difficult to compare in many ways but overall we are WAY better off here. In hindsight I'm not really sure what we were thinking with Hillhead. I certainly would have been working more to pay for it, not even to mention being able to do all of the work it needed, immediately! We would have been more isolated and lived in fear of what might happen with the landfill site neighbouring it. Although the garden was bigger, it would have taken SO much time (we don't have) to keep up with it and it wouldn't have been as safe for the kids. Here, the preschool and the primary school are just over the road, we are a short walking distance to a park, shop and little countryside walks. There's a real mix between being more rural but also having a village community, which the kids will love.
This house is definitely the furthest away from work for Scott but so far, with Covid, he hasn't needed to go to the office and here he has the space over the garage so he can work completely separately to the mayhem of the house. He is now on a flexi contract which means he can work from home but has access to the office if and when he needs it. There's a proper term his company has called it but I can't remember it! At some point he will need to go in, which is approximately a 2hr trip, one way but hopefully it won't be regularly.. he always used to travel about with work, mainly abroad which eventually he will have to do again but that's just as likely as his need to go into the office. That wouldn't change wherever we lived.
For me work wise, we live smack bang in the middle of the closest 3 hospitals. This is great in the sense that it gives me an equal choice of 3 places of work but at the same time, they are all around the 35-40min journey time and vary between 20-30 miles. Although I was able to get to work in 25mins in Bristol, this was if the traffic was nice to me. It was not uncommon in the slightest for the journey home after a nightshift to take an hour or more. Once taking into consideration the dire parking in Bristol and the variable journey length, I used to leave an hour early for my shift. I do the same now! Only before I leave, I make myself a cuppa in my travel mug and enjoy it whilst driving along the North Devon link road, also appreciating the countryside as I drive! Oh and when I get there, I drive straight into a parking space, close to the building I work in! Kinda feels like luxury really...
As for family, it's working really well. We live approx 20-25mins away from Scott's parents and approx 30mins away from mine. Scott's sister and family live in our closest town about 10mins away and his other sister on the outskirts of Exeter, also not too far. We see people a lot and it's really nice to have childcare closer and not feel bad about asking more regularly. The reality is that I am only working the bare minimum at the moment and that suits us just fine thank you. If I earned more money we could afford to do the bigger jobs quicker, but ultimately this is forever home and there is no real rush. The babies are only small once so as long as we are happy and comfortable, a new kitchen can wait!
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